The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 80: How The Game Was Played

Episode Date: October 24, 2017

Saul's nephew kept a secret his entire career - you could do that back then.

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Terms apply. This is the way I heard. Saul Venzoor had pitched himself into a jam. After eight scoreless innings, he began the ninth by giving up two hits and a walk. Now the bases were loaded with no outs, and Saul was cursing the umpire over a ball that clearly should have been a strike. Put a siego! In those days, you could call the umpire a blind whore. That's how the game was played.

Saul stepped off the mound, grabbed a handful of dirt and twisted. the baseball between his giant hands. In the stands, his handicapped nephew watched his every move. Saul caught his eye and gave him a wink. No problemo. Then he turned his attention to the visitor's dugout, where the opposing team shouted encouragement to their batter. Wait for your pitch, Alejandro.

He's got nothing. Little man, little arm. At six foot five, there was nothing little about Saul, including his ego. Orah, yelled Saul. The umpire raised both arms and called time. Saul's nephew watched his uncle stroll toward the opposing dugout, where he addressed the now silent players.

$5 says I end this game without giving up a single run. Any takers? In those days, you could make a friendly wager in the minor leagues. That's how the game was played. Like Saul, the migrant workers on the opposing team, weren't flush with cash, but the odds were just too good to resist. So they pulled their money, they made their wager, and then they watched in horror as Saul struck out the side.

Final score, Santa Barbara Merchants won, Oxnard Aces, Zero. It was one of the many moments that Saul's nephew would never forget. Maybe not as dramatic as the time his uncle struck out Babe Ruth in an exhibition game. or the time he pitched 19 consecutive innings in a legendary duel against the minor league team from Los Angeles, but memorable nevertheless. Because the events of that day gave the boy another look at the very qualities that would shape his own career, a potent mix of raw talent, supreme confidence, and boundless machismo. Years later, after setting records that remain unbroken to this day,

Saul's nephew would recall the long driveway on Chino Street, where his uncle first showed him a 90-mile-an-hour fastball up close and personal. Saul was not the sympathetic uncle who let you win just to build your confidence, nor was he inclined to cut you any slack just because you were born with certain disadvantages. Now, Saul Van Zor was the uncle who teased and taunted, the uncle who said. sent you home in tears and dared you to come back for more if you had the Cajonis. In those days, there were no participation trophies. That's not how the game was played. Well, Salul's nephew came back to Chino Street because there, no one cared about his handicap. There, a kid like him could learn to hit a major league fastball.

There, a kid like him could learn how to be a man. Thanks to his uncle, Saul's nephew was drafted to a minor league team straight out of high school. At 21 years of age, he was playing in the majors. And by the end of his rookie career, everyone was talking about the Latino legend, a baseball prodigy who hit 327 with 31 home runs and a league leading 145 RBIs. Well, sort of. Those stats are correct, and the chatter was exceedingly complimentary, but no one was talking about the Latino legend, because no one knew that Saul's nephew was Hispanic. That's because his mother had married a gringo, and the boy had inherited his father's complexion, along with his distinctly American name.

back in 1939, eight years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, that was a very handy thing because guys like Saul and his nephew, they were handicapped by their ethnicity, like the Negroes, the Mexicans, had a league of their own. In those days, you could separate people who looked different from you. That's how the game was played. And make no mistake, Saul's nephew knew how to play the game. He concealed his handicap for his entire career. Even when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966, he acknowledged all of his coaches from high school to the majors.

He acknowledged his manager, the owner of the Red Sox, his teammates, and all the sports writers who had voted for him. The only name he didn't mention was the name of the man whose ethnicity would have revealed his own, the Mexican uncle, who taught him how to play the game. Today, it's hard to know how to feel about that. Some people say if Saul's nephew had embraced his handicap, he might have paved the way for other Mexican Americans. Others say that doing so would have most assuredly kept him out of the majors and doomed him to a career as anonymous as his uncles.

I guess we'll never know. But this much is certain. 36 years after he entered the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the 83-year-old left fielder, who kept his Mexican heritage a secret, became the first inductee into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame. Just a few months before he died,

the 17-time All-Star was finally honored in a way he'd never been honored before, not as the greatest hitter of all time, not as the last man to bat over 400, but as Saul Venzor's nephew, a devastating athlete with Mexican roots who concealed his true heritage his entire career, a man, you know, as Ted Williams. Anyway, that's the way I heard it. maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Granger is your trusted partner. Offering the products you need all in one place, from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time

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